1. Technical Field
The invention relates generally to occupant restraint systems for automotive vehicles, and more particularly to restraint systems for automotive vehicles employing back-to-back seating arrangements.
2. Description of the Prior Art
It is legislatively mandated in certain jurisdictions that occupant restraint devices, typically combination lap and shoulder belt arrangements, be provided for each laterally outboard seating position in an automotive vehicle. For vehicles like station wagons, passenger vans, and sport/utility vehicles, which may have more than two longitudinally spaced seating positions, this mandate has resulted in the provision of occupant restraint systems which add significant weight and cost to the manufacture of such vehicles, and which may be mounted in ways viewed as aesthetically unpleasing.
In mounting a combination lap and shoulder belt for use by seated passengers in the outboard positions, it is typical to use a retractor mounted in the vehicle from which a seatbelt passes and which is anchored at its other end. Intermediate the retractor and the anchor is a guide ring, commonly referred to as a D-ring, which is positioned above the shoulder of the occupant so that a portion of the belt may be directed down and across the occupant for appropriate restraint. Mounting the D-ring to a fixed body portion of the automotive vehicle involves the use of reinforcing structure appropriate to carry the belt load since the load requirement at the mounting point of the D-ring is greater than the loading requirement for adjacent portions of the vehicle body. Adding this reinforcing structure at multiple positions adversely affects the overall weight of the vehicle as well as its cost.
Furthermore, in mounting the D-rings with respect to the vehicle seating positions, the frequent practice in the prior art has been to mount multiple D-rings at discrete longitudinal positions along the roof rail of the vehicle. This has resulted, in some vehicle applications, in the unsightly view of unused belts suspended to hang vertically across the side windows adjacent the vehicle seating positions.